Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-29

for which we were steering, ana where we
learned that the second lake, of which the
wanderer had spoken as a lake without q
bottom, was situated At length we ar
rived there, and ascertaining that there
aUds large lake on the top Of the noun
tains, assembled three thousand feet more
till we came to precipit0uS cliff or edge.
to find great sheet of water some twenty
miles square lying fifteen hundred feet be-
low us, and evidently occupying an extinct
volcanic crater or craters of vast extent.
Perceiying villages on the border of this
lake, we descended with great difficulty
through forests of pine trees, which now
clothed the precipitous sides of the crater
and were well received by the people. a
simple, unwarlike folk, who had never
seen or even heard of white man before,
and treated us with great reverence and
kindness, supplying us with as much food
and milk as we could eat. This wonderful
and beautiful lake lay. according to our
aneroid, at Il height of not less than II, $50
feet above sea-level, and its climate was
quite cold, and not at all unlike that of
England. Indeed. for the first three days
of our stay there we saw little or nothing
OF the scenery on account of an unmistak-
able Scotch mist which prevailed 1t was
this rain that set the tsetse poison work
ing IN our remaining donkeys, SO that they
all died.
| This disaster left rs in very awkward
position, as we had now no means of trans
| port whatever, though, on the other hand;
we had not much to carry. Ammunition,
| too, was very short, amounting to but one
hundred and fifty round of rifle cartridges,
and some fifty shotgun cartridges. How
| to get on we did not know; indeed it seemed
to us that we had about reached the end
of our tether. Even if we had been in
clined to abandon the object of our search,
which, shadow as it was, was by no means
the case, it was ridiculous to think Of fore
ing our way back some seven hundred
miles to the coast in our present plight, so
we came to the conclusion that the only
| thing to be done was to stop where we
were-the natives being so well disposed,
and food plentiful-for the present, and
abide events and try to collect information
| rs to the countries beyond.
| Accordingly, having purchased capital
| log canoe, large enough to hold us all and
| our baggage, from the head man of the
| village we were staying in, presenting him
with three empty cold-drawn brass cart
ridges by way Of payment, with which he
was perfectly delighted, we set out TO
make a tour of the lake in order to find the
| most favorable place to make a camp. AS
we did not know if we should return to
| this village, we put all our gear into the
| canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water
buck, which, when young, is delicious eat
ing, and off we set, natives having already
gone before us in light canoes to warn the
inhabitants of the other villages of our APP
prOach.
AS we were padding leisurely along,
Good remarked upon the extraordinary
deep blue color Of the water, and said that
he understood from the natives, who were
great fishermen-fish, indeed, being their
principal food-that the lake was supposed
to be wonderfully deep, and to have hole
at the bottom through which the water
escaped and put out some great fire that
was raging below.
pointed out to him that what she had
heard was probably legend arising from
tradition among the people which dated
back to the time when one of the extinct
parasitic volcanic cones was in activity
We saw several round the borders of the
lake, which had no doubt been working at
q period long subsequent to the volcanic
death of the central crater, which now
formed the bed of the lake itself. When
it became finally extinct, the people would
imagine that the water from the lake had
run down and put out the big fire below,
more especially as, though it was constant
ly fed by streams running from the snow
tipped peaks about, there was no visible
exit to it.
The farther shore of the lake we found,
on approaching it, to consist of a vast per-
pendicular wall of rock, which held the
water without any intermediate sloping
shore, as elsewhere. Accordingly we pad
died parallel with this precipice, at q dis
lance of about a hundred PAGES from it,
shaping our course for the end Of the lake,
where we knew that there was a large VIZ
lage.
AS we went, we began to pass a consid-
cradle accumulation of floating rushes,
weeds, boughs Of trees, and other rubbish
brought, Good supposed, to this spot by
some current, which he was much puzzled
to account for Whilst we were speculat-
ing about this, Sir Henry pointed out
flock of large white swans, which were
feeding on The drift some little way ahead
of US. Now I had already noticed swans
flying about this lake, and having never
come across bn0I0 before III Africa, was 6X-
ceedingly anxious to obtain a specimen. /
had questioned the natives about them and
learned that they came from over the
mountain, always arriving at certain per-
iods of the year in the early morning, when
it was very easy to catch them on account
of their exhausted condition. I also asked
them what country they came from, when
they shrugged their shoulders, and said
on the top of the great black precipice was
stony, inhospitable land, and beyond that
were mountains with snow, and full of
wild beasts, where no people lived, and be-
yond the mountains were hundreds Of
miles Of dense thorn forest, SO thick that
even the elephants could not get through
it, much less men. Next I asked them if
they had ever heard of white people like
| ourselves living on the further side Of the
mountains and the thorn-forests, Whereat
they laU ghed, but afterwards q very old
woman came and told me that when she
was little girl, her grandfather had told
her that, in his youth, his grandfather had
| crossed the desert and the mountains, and
pierced the thorn forest, and seen white
na0nlo who lived in stone Er9aiG hnyOnd